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Zab Judah to face Paulie Malignaggi on December 7th in New York

By Allan Fox: Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO’s) will be facing Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) on December 7th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, according to Showtime’s Al Bernstein. On the undercard will be welterweights Keith Thurman vs. Jesus Soto Karass. There’s no word about Amir Khan battling Devon Alexander, so you have to assume that we won’t be seeing that fight any time soon.

Judah-Malignaggi pits too fighters coming off of losses and in need of a big win. Malignaggi lost his WBA title to Adrien Broner last June by a much disputed 12 round split decision in Brooklyn, New York. Judah lost to to WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision last April.

Glad @PaulMalignaggi and @SUPERJUDAH got made. I think it will be a really fun fight to see &. I am delighted to be able to announce it.

For both Judah and Malignaggi, this might be about as good as it gets right now until the winner picks up another important victory.

It’s not realistic to think that the winner of the Judah vs. Malignaggi fight will get a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. because they need to put more victories behind them before they can be considered for such a fight.

Malignaggi’s loss to the Mayweather-esque Broner would seem to have taken away any chance of him getting a fight against Mayweather. As for Judah, he’s lost 2 out of his last 3 fights and has become more of a gate keeper at this point in his career.

Judah has the tools to beat Malignaggi with his power and speed. Malignaggi doesn’t do well against fast fighter, as we saw in his loss to Amir Khan, and Judah definitely has a big advantage in the speed department. The one unknown about Judah is whether he handle it if he gets cut. He doesn’t fight well when he starts bleeding, and we’ve seen his performances disintegrate at times once his blood starts flowing.

Judah also can be taken out of his game when he gets nailed with low blows or belt blows. He lost the fight to Khan after getting hit on the belt line and choosing to stay down despite the fact that the referee had clearly scored it as a legal punch. Malignaggi might want to consider attacking Judah’s body because he doesn’t seem to take body shots very well.

#1 WBA, #1 WBO, Keith Thurman (21-0, 19 KO’s) vs. Jesus Soto Karass (28-8-3, 18 KO’s) is a good fight between two big welterweights that arguably should be fighting at junior middleweight. Thurman stopped the previously unbeaten Diego Chaves in the 10th round last July to capture the interim WBA welterweight title in a mostly one-sided fight.

Soto Karass is coming off of a nice 12th round TKO win over Andre Berto last July. Before that fight, Soto Karass defeated Selcuk Aydin by a 10 round majority decision last January.

You have to give Thurman a good shot to beat Soto Karass due to his ability to move around the ring and switch between punching and boxing. Soto Karass fights in one manners and that’s by coming forward all the time. He’s not a big puncher, and he’s not very fast.

Thurman is in a great position to get a title shot against either Adrien Broner or WBO champion Timothy Bradley. He’ll have to likely wait a while before he gets a title shot against the Top Rank promoted Bradley, but he’ll get a crack at that title eventually if he wants it enough.

It’ll be up to Golden Boy Promotions in terms of who they prefer to match him against. It’d doubtful that they’ll target the WBO title because it’ll mean a lot of waiting around before the World Boxing Organization forces Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez to fight him. Marquez will never agree to fight a huge welterweight like Thurman. It’s not a big enough money fight and Marquez will likely retire rather than taking that fight.